B365V2.28 - Cops and Robbers

Given a couple of things I have run into recently regarding the police and people's interactions with them, I guess it is time to tell every one to pull up a chair, because it's story time.

First, let me say that being a police officer I would imagine is a thankless task, I know I wouldn't want to do it, but it is a task that some people sign up for.  And for those that choose that career path, there are plenty of us that would wish they would actually do the job, as opposed to play dress up and imitate the role.  Allow me to agree with you some experiences with the police in my job in retail.

My first experience would come as one of our veterans ( a term used for anyone who has worked for us for more than a couple of years), had seen someone come into our store who we had previously thrown out for stealing.  Throwing people out is about all we can do in reality and god knows people can just come in at different times (we are open 24/7 after all) to try and avoid being detected, but in this particular instance, whether it be stupidity on the suspects part or alertness of our cashier, she told him he had to go and explained why.  On his way out the door he looked at her and said " I better not catch you outside."  So now not only has he stole from us in the past, he is now threatening our employees.  As it turns out, he stole from us again that day to, a 1 liter bottle of Brisk iced tea, which will become important as the story rolls on.  So now we track this guy down, all the while summoning the police via cell phone, until we catch up with him some 5 blocks away.  The police arrived and we explained the situation, we had thrown this gentleman out before and he just threatened one of our employees.  The police didn't see it that way.  Since the suspect never said specifically what he would do to our cashier, it is not a threat at all.  Now I ask, if someone had said something like that to you, would you construe it as a threat, knowing that every day after work you have to walk to your bus stop?  Here is where the bottle of tea comes into play however, it was pointed out that he stole the bottle from our store ( we had a witness with us who saw him take it), they ran his name for prior arrests.  If you get busted doing a retail theft three or more times it get upgraded to a felony, otherwise the amount taken must be more than $150.  Well they ran the suspects name and apparently it came up not once, or twice but thrice so the police were forced to take him.

My next run in with law enforcement would happen when some suspicious looking crackheads were lingering around the coffee area of our store.  Now some of you may be thinking I am being insensitive by calling them crackheads, but just as some people claim to have gaydar and can pick out people who are gay, I guess you could say I have crackheaddar then.  Nonetheless, they are lingering around in that one area of the store, where we have the self serve coffee, some snack cakes and chips and a sunglasses rack, so after they abdicate the area, I go upstairs and proceed to check things out.  Sure enough there is a whole section of the sunglasses rack that is empty, so I run downstairs and check the camera very quickly and see one of the three dropping sunglasses into a bag they brought in with them.  Brian and Ed were both in the office with me, I point it out on camera and they rush upstairs to catch up with the trio, who had made as far as the corner outside where they were waiting on their getaway vehicle, the 69 Trafford, a city bus.  I come upstairs, and as I do there is a police officer buying lottery tickets right at the counter, so I stop and say I may have need of his services momentarily.  Brian and Ed bring the male of the group back into the store, he was with two females who were presumably acting as lookouts, and sure enough in his bag was the sunglasses, roughly 8 pairs of them, as well as a handful of lighters he stole off of the front counter.  The officer sees this, as well as another officer that came, I assume he was called for backup, and they do absolutely nothing save for tell the thief he was no longer allowed in the store.

The third time was when the store was robbed at gunpoint in the early hours of the morning, a guy came in and pointed a gun at our two cashiers on duty demanding money.  I was called almost immediately after it happened and I climbed out of my bed to rush down to the store.  I got there about 30 minutes after getting called and yet there was nobody there, save for my employees, the cops had already come and gone, even though I could have given them video surveillance of the entire incident.  Instead two detectives came in some three hours later to review what I had.  He was caught and is awaiting trial (on July 6th), but not because of anything the police did, rather he tried his robbery thing again at a 7-11 and he picked the wrong store, because the cashier there was a Gold Gloves boxer, who proceeded to beat the shit out of him.  Mind you, the 7-11 attempted robbery was the 17 th this particular felon was wanted for.  So if you are thinking of starting a crime spree, you could pick worse places than Pittsburgh to get things underway.

Time #4 I was actually doing a favor for the police.  I received a phone call about a stolen credit card that was used by one of our customers.  After conferring with the investigating officer and getting a time and amounts on the purchases, I was able to cross reference those times and amounts with our cameras and register system and burn to DVD the actual footage of the pair of crackheads ( one man and one woman) involved as well as copies of the receipts in question.    I then left instructions for our crew that if they come back in to let me know, but don't do anything to startle them.  If they try paying with a card, obviously check their ID first, but beyond that don't do anything out of the ordinary.  It is kind of like one of those Mutual Of Omaha Wild Kingdom specials, don't do anything to startle the crackheads.  Behavior patterns suggest if they got away with shit in our store before, their migratory patterns would bring them back.  And when they came back, I would get them.  Sure enough, they came back in, I called 911 while they were being stalled at the counter (teamwork baby) and mentioned the case file they were wanted for and everything.  The cops came, they picked more stolen merchandise off of the guy, who had been busy stuffing his pants full of Red Bulls and e-liquids for electronic cigarettes.  We had these fuckers gift wrapped for the police, who issued them a citation to appear in court, told them never to darken our door agin and cut them loose.  Having spoken with one of the officers involved since then, it turns out they arrested them man for robbery the very next day.  Apparently breaking the law in our store isn't cause enough for the police to do anything.

And my most recent incident involved someone who came in Monday and stole a bunch of bottles of laundry detergent.  She came back in Wednesday, Ed and Steve followed her down the street and kept her until the police arrived, where they pulled more stolen merchandise off of her from her second visit.  All she got was a stern warning not to come back or it would be charged as a criminal trespass.  How about some charges for the thefts she actually did do?  No dice.

Something can only be viewed as a thankless task if an actual task has been performed and when it comes to the Pittsburgh Police, I haven't seen it yet.